March Madness: Will North Carolina Beat Texas A&M? A.I. Predicts
The second-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels started their title defense off right with a big win over Lipscomb. Can they do the same in the second round and secure a return ticket to the Sweet Sixteen?
To do that, they must beat the seven seed Texas A&M Aggies, who beat a game Providence Friars squad in their opener. A hive mind of fans predicts who wins.
To predict the result of this and other games, Unanimous A.I. used what’s known as swarm intelligence to forecast the week’s slate. About 50 college basketball fans worked together as a hive mind to make picks. As you can see in the animation below, each participant controlled a little golden magnet and used it to drag the puck toward the answer they thought was the most likely outcome. As the users saw the puck move toward a particular outcome, it triggers a psychological response. They readjust their decision-making, building toward a consensus.
The hive mind picks North Carolina here with high confidence and a whopping 95 percent brainpower behind the pick. That’s as close to a lock as second round match-ups get.
Read more from Inverse: The Perfect NCAA Bracket Is A.I.’s Biggest Sports Challenge Yet
Unanimous A.I. has made some scarily accurate predictions in the past using swarm intelligence, as our previous article explains. For instance, the swarm picked this year’s Oscar winners with 94 percent accuracy. Here’s Unanimous A.I. founder Louis Rosenberg explaining swarm intelligence at a recent TEDx Talk.
The game tips off Sunday at 5:15 p.m. on CBS.
